Mark Forscher

I’m not a big advocate of awards shows, particularly in advertising, but the Outdoor Grand Prix winner the 56th Cannes Lion International Advertising Festival this year is noteworthy. From AdAge:

The “Trillion Dollar Campaign” for the newspaper The Zimbabwean from TBWA Hunt Lascaris, Johannesburg, South Africa, plastered real Zimbabwean trillion-dollar banknotes onto billboards, murals and fliers, serving as a real-life symbol of the country’s record inflation and economic collapse. The campaign ultimately aimed to raise awareness of Zimbabwe’s suffering under the Mugabe regime and increase the newspaper’s customer base elsewhere in the hopes of getting it back into the hands of Zimbabwe people.

The paper was exiled from the country for exposing the corruption of its government, which subsequently imposed a 55% luxury import tax on the publication, making it unaffordable for the average citizen.

I’m glad the campaign is getting recognition outside of Zimbabwe.

Clever business card for Canadian personal trainer Poul Nielsen designed by Publicis, Toronto. Via Design Boom

I saw this targeted ad on Facebook yesterday:

Facebook ad: “Like J Dilla?”
Me: “Yes. But you knew that already because I am a ‘fan’ of Dilla on this Facebook page.”

Facebook ad: *Picture of kid kissing pig through fence*
Me: “What the…”

Facebook ad: “Then you’ll love the new Craters album.”
Me: “Ok Facebook ad. I wonder if they actually sound like Dilla.”

Facebook ad: “Download it for free…”
Me: “cool”
Facebook ad: “…from the MySpace, right now.”
Me: “the MySpace? Was this written by the George or a John?”

Facebook ad: “Get it before Pitchfork does.”
Me: “Wow this is really targeted.” *Click*

I’m not surprised to hear the band doesn’t sound much like Dilla to me. But they’re weird and interesting enough for a listen again later. Well played Facebook ad. Well played.

Wow. Even though I didn’t work with him directly, I’ve known Jerome Austria was a creative genius from my time at R/GA on the Nike Basketball account a few years ago. But this confirms that his character matches his creative talent. From AgencySpy:

As we hoped, more information on the AKQA situation we reported yesterday has come to light.

We told you about a creative director at the agency who walked out when some of his team was let go. Well, the mystery addie is Jerome Austria.

…

The move apparently had something to do with ECD Lars Bastholm, “who reportedly is horrible at managing people and does nothing but send cool web links and take credit for work he had no part of.”

It takes a lot of guts to stand up for the people you work with like this, especially in the commercial design world where it’s a lot easier to keep your head down.

Check out Jerome’s portfolio for some truly brilliant integrated advertising campaigns.

“Are you in the campaign or commitment business?” Joseph Jaffe asks as he rips into Sprint, Sony, T-Mobile, and Starbucks for their “Social Media Mistakes.” Basically Jaffe’s point is marketers and brands should engage every customer genuinely by approaching marketing as a conversation (with two equal sides) rather than a one way street.

Practically what that means is: less lawyers, don’t fake it, follow through, and address customers directly. Jaffe argues for shifting money from the media budget to staff customer service representatives and to be agile as new opportunities to extend a brand appear independently from campaigns. Good stuff.

If Advertising Age let me embed their Brightcove player I would have posted the video. Here’s a link.

Interesting interview with Big Spaceship’s Michael Lebowitz from mediabistro.com’s AgencySpy blog.

He studied film at Vasser, came to New York and did some things. But in 2000, at a really bad time to start a company he launched Big Spaceship.

Each year since it’s inception, the digital creative company has seen growth. Today, it pays the rent for 45 people, who in turn have developed award winning work that continues to bring in new biz, even during an economic downturn.

With so many small interactive agencies framing themselves as full service, Lebowitz has a different take:

Why would anyone expect a digital agency, which is already niche by nature, to cover the entire digital field, especially when it’s changing so quickly. When that question is answered, he said, it will be too late.

Indeed.

This ad is pretty incredible. The download is a little slow but it’s definitely worth it. The soundtrack is great and it reminds me of Brazilan pop from the 60s. While many agencies are trying to build hype through ‘grassroots’ viral campaigns, well executed creative ads like this can be a lot more entertaining.

A few weeks ago I saw Jeff Benjamin from Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, the agency responsible for Subservient Chicken (among other viral marketing hits), speak during the Eyebeam Contagious Media Workshops. He had a pretty realistic take on the challenge of advertising in 2005: everyone knows advertising is trying to sell something, so now people have the expectation that if you’re going to try to sell them something, you should entertain them while doing it.

Advertising as entertainment is not a new idea, but it is a lot more engaging (even as a tv ad) than a viral marketing campaign done for the sake of going ‘viral.’ Now if only I remembered what type of deodarant this Stunt City ad is trying to sell…